A Turtle on the Polar Express
by pacphys
Summary: Donatello remembers a ride on the Polar Express.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Ninja Turtles, the Polar Express or any associated characters. I make no money from this and I mean no harm. Please do not sue.

* * *

**Prologue**

My name is Donatello and it's that time of year again. Everyone is home, and there are even a few new friends coming for the holiday as well. I love Christmas. Everyone happy and getting along and just being friends. The time of year when for a few short hours our other problems in life don't exist, or at least they aren't so bothersome.

Mikey and April are in the kitchen making cookies, and I have no doubt that Mikey is eating as much of the dough as he's putting on the tray. Leo and Master Splinter are putting up decorations around the lair. Casey's supposed to be helping them, but I haven't seen him in hours. Part of me wonders if Leo and Master Splinter sent him on some weird and very time consuming errand to keep him from breaking the decorations that he's supposed to be putting up. Finally, Raph and I get the best job. We are decorating the tree.

"Donnie, would you quit singin'?" Raph demanded of me. I don't know why he asks, he knows the answer. My response to that question at Christmas time has never changed.

"Not on your life!" I replied quickly before continuing my song. I raised the volume a bit and heard Mikey join me from the kitchen.

"Oh no, now there's two of them!" Raph half jokingly lamented, spurning Leo to grin then burst into song as well. April and Splinter joined shortly after that. And, if I'm not very much mistaken, even Raph was humming along. Of course he was trying to pretend that he wasn't and would never admit to such an act, but we'll keep that between you and me.

Raph and I continued to decorate the tree, nearly an hour later we were just about finished. As far as he was concerned, we were finished, but one decoration remained.

"Donnie, why do you insist on putting up that stupid old bell? It's been gummed up for years."

I looked over at Raphael with a disappointed expression.

"It was a gift." I replied simply. While true, it wasn't my whole reason for putting the bell up. "And it's important to me."

Raph frowned, but nodded. Who knows, maybe he was actually allowing me my quirks much the way we allow him his. It might be a little much to hope for, but you just are never quite sure with Raph. I'll never know why he didn't pursue the argument so I'll settle for being content that he didn't and that he allowed the bell to stay. Another theory is that Raph is more into the Christmas spirit than he would have us know.

At any other time of the year, Raph might argue with the bell's presence. I love Christmas time. Some might think I always have, but they'd be wrong. There was a time when Christmas was far from a pleasant experience. I will forever be glad that has changed.

And you're curious now, aren't you? Alright, let me tell you a story.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Ninja Turtles, the Polar Express or any associated characters. I make no money from this and I mean no harm. Please do not sue.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

The cold woke me up that night. Otherwise I may never have heard the noise that drew me out of the lair and into the sewer tunnel beyond. I had no idea what to make of the sound and had never heard anything like it before. The most surprising thing to me at the time was that Master Splinter had not responded to the noise. If he had, I am certain that I would have been in trouble for leaving our home in the middle of the night. In fact, it almost seemed like I was the only one who heard it. My brothers remained sound asleep though they usually woke up whenever any of us moved. While everything I had been taught told me that I was making a mistake, I couldn't help but go investigate the noise I had heard.

What I found just outside the lair was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. A train of all things was in the sewer! I stared at the train for only a brief moment before a voice sliced through my thoughts.

"All Aboard!"

I whipped my head around to find the speaker. It was a man, an adult, a human. I'd been taught that humans were not to be trusted. That they would hurt me and my brothers if they knew that we existed. I might have been young, but Master Splinter had taught us this lesson at an extremely early age. Staggering backward away from the man, I ran into the tunnel wall.

"Are you coming?"

All I could do was stare at the strange man who had gotten off the train and approached me. A moment later I raised my arms in a manner I hoped would be vaguely threatening or at the very least show off what I was and that the man was mistaken and in the wrong place. Trains didn't belong in the sewer anyway, particularly not 2-8-4 Baldwin steamers.

My attempt at looking threatening was apparently humorous to the man from the train because he chuckled.

"Up to you, kid."

Part of me wanted to go. I'm an explorer at heart and always have been, and yet I found myself backing away. Master Splinter's warnings about humans fought my natural curiosity.

"Alright, if that's what you want, kid." The man climbed back on-board and the train started moving.

That is what got me though he'd had to say it a couple of times for it to really sink in. This man saw me as a kid, not as a monster like Master Splinter had told us humans would see us. Still, I backed away for another moment before changing my mind. As I said, I'm naturally curious. It tends to get the better of me. Something that was even more common when I was younger though I have yet to completely outgrow it. I ran, raced for the departing train and just caught the back end of the rear-most car. With some effort I pulled myself aboard.

The train burst out of the sewers and raced along a snow covered New York City. I had never seen the city lit up like this before. My brothers and I had never been allowed topside during the winter as it was too cold for our young, reptilian bodies so seeing this was a real treat. Before this moment, winter was nothing more than a dark, cold season that meant illness and scarcer food supplies than the warmer summer months provided. Now, seeing what it looked like above ground... it was beautiful. Breathtaking really, to a child who had never known snow. I was gawking at the first snowy landscape I had ever seen when I heard a sound behind me. The same man from earlier was clearing his throat.

"Welcome aboard." He said as he ushered me into the car through it and to the door of the next one. The car that was full of human children! I hesitated and fought against the gentle push he gave me.

"I see." The man said, drawing my attention upward. His voice was softer now, more gentle. It was nothing like the brash tones he'd used outside in the sewers. "Perhaps this one?" He gestured toward the empty car we had just passed through. I half smiled and he showed me to a seat in the back, far from the prying eyes of the other children, for a time at least. I was given a blanket, newer, fluffier and nicer than I even knew existed. The only blankets I had known were the threadbare items Master Splinter occasionally found in the junkyard or in charity barrels. Then the man checked his watch and hurried off to another part of the train, leaving me alone with the amazing blanket.

At least that had been the idea. I believe that I came across the best of humanity that evening.

"Hi."

I looked around, searching for the owner of the voice and found a girl, she was probably a few years older than me. All I could do for a long moment was blink at her. She looked curious, and though larger than me, she was not striking me as threatening.

"Can you talk?"

Eventually I did manage to find my tongue.

"Hi."

She smiled and sat down next to me, offering a cup of hot chocolate.

"You missed a nice, little party one car up."

I shrugged. Back here was safer. I wouldn't be seen by as many people and humans were dangerous. Though this girl seemed alright.

"Aren't you scared?" I managed to ask.

"Should I be?"

Well, that left me stumped. Everything I had ever been told made me believe that all humans would be afraid of us. That is why we could never venture out of the lair and certainly never leave the safety of the sewers and other underground tunnels. Fear would incite them to act in ways that would harm my family. "I... don't know. Most people are. They're scared of me and my brothers and try to hurt us." I hadn't seen that many people in my life, but the few I had seen had been scared. One of them chased me with a piece of PVC piping until Master Splinter saved me. Mikey once received a broken leg from a sewer worker who saw him.

The girl frowned. "We won't hurt you." She promised. "Come on up into the next car." She offered me her hand.

I hesitated for a long moment. I didn't want to go to the front car where all the humans were. Still, something about the look on her face made me change my mind. Her soft smile seemed accommodating, like it didn't matter that I was a turtle. Looking back, perhaps her family had insisted that it did not matter what color someone was, they could still be a good person, or perhaps it was no more nor less than a child's innocence. Whatever it was, I finally relented. She took my hand and led me to the car in front of us. Allowing this was something I wound up regretting for a while.

"Say, what kind of costume is that? What are you supposed to be?" Some kid with a brassy voice asked.

"It's not a costume."

"It has to be a costume, there's no such thing as humanoid turtles." I wondered if this was that 'annoying' tone my brothers said I sometimes used... I didn't like the way he was talking to me, but I just shrugged. It's difficult to believe that something doesn't exist when you are that something.

"Turtles don't walk on two feet." The boy insisted.

"I do." I shrugged again. I knew that most turtles didn't walk on two feet, but what was I supposed to tell him?

"So what are you? Like the world's largest turtle."

"No." I responded, getting a little annoyed with the line of questioning. The girl who had brought me up here looked at me sadly. I don't think she had expected the game of 20 questions. "The largest turtle in the world is the leatherback sea turtle. Their shells can grow up to 80 inches and they can weigh up to one ton." I continued. "My shell isn't 80 inches and I'm nowhere near weighing one ton."

I wasn't sure what to make of the expression on the boy's face, but the snicker from the girl seemed to be directed at him rather than me. Had it been directed at me, I probably would have gone back to the other car. While I was thinking about other things, the brassy voiced kid finished what looked like his impression of a fish and started talking again. A shame really, I had rather enjoyed those moments when he was actually quiet.

"Well, do you know what kind of train this is, huh? Do you?" There was something about the tone of his voice that I didn't like, and I found myself hoping that I never sounded like that. Though I was really suspecting that this is what my brothers had described. I frowned, taking it in for a moment and trying to place what about it had upset me.

"Of course." The girl stated with a roll of her eyes. "Everyone knows it's a magic train."

The boy rolled his eyes in return and opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it.

"It's a 2-8-4 Berkshire, also known as a Kanawha. This one was manufactured by Bradley." I said before he could finish the sentence he was about to start. I didn't like this boy, and he didn't seem particularly fond of me. Still, he didn't seem content to leave me alone. That insistence on talking to me made little sense then, though now I suspect that some part of him liked the challenge I presented.

"Yeah, well, what was the precursor to the Berkshire?" He asked.

"The 2-8-2 Mikado." I looked at the girl who had brought me up here. "Can I go back now?"

She sighed. "Leave him alone." She ordered the boy.

"Young man." I hadn't even heard the conductor approach, and yet he was right behind me. Master Splinter would have been disappointed. Though I can't say that I disliked his timing. It got the annoying boy to shut up. "I believe that I have yet to punch your ticket."

I looked up in confusion. I didn't have a ticket. He's the one who had come up to me just outside what served as our front door..

"Try your pocket." The conductor sounded annoyed with me.

"I- I... don't have a pocket." But before I could even finish the sentence, I found a golden ticket tucked into my belt. It had not been there earlier, of that I was certain. "Whoa." I commented quietly as I held up the ticket.

"Thank you." He said as he took it and started punching hole after hole in it. When he handed it back to me there were two letters on it; 'PE' graced one end of the golden ticket. I just looked at the ticket, having no idea what the letters meant. It wasn't a word, I knew that much, but if it stood for something, I didn't know what it was. With a sigh I put the ticket back in my belt.

The brassy voiced kid approached me again and started asking me questions about turtles, then lizards and snakes before moving onto mammals. By that time, the girl who had come to get me out of the back car made him leave.

"Sorry," the girl apologized, "he shouldn't have done that."

I just shrugged. While the boy had been annoying, I'd found some strange modicum of comfort in his presence. At the time, I could not place it and the girl and I sat in silence again. The quiet didn't last long. She sort of reminded me of Mikey and his constant need to talk.

"Aren't you excited?"

"About what?" I honestly had no idea what I should have been excited about.

"It's Christmas!" This was obviously a reason to be excited, but growing up as I had, things were just different. At the time, I had never really experienced a Christmas. Certainly not like the ones we saw pictures of in books. It was just another day in a long, hard winter.

"I prefer Halloween." I responded honestly, the girl blinked and looked at me like I was out of my mind, forcing me to continue.

"Well... On Halloween we can go up top and walk around outside and be with other kids." It was the one day a year when my family was normal. "And it's warmer."

"You're with other kids now." The girl pointed out. I guess she couldn't really do anything about the cold.

It took me a moment to realize that she was correct. I was with other children. They were just up in the other car, and not a single one of them had treated me harshly because I was a turtle. Well, that one boy had, but that had been different. I was pretty sure he was just harsh with everyone. I stared at the girl next to me for a moment. After a moment, I found myself smiling.

"Yeah... I guess so." I responded. And suddenly, I wanted to go back up to the other car and be with those other kids. Maybe make a friend. On the other hand, I was still wary of humans, even if they were children and had so far done nothing to hurt me. It was just the way I had been raised.

It became quiet again. I was thinking. Though nothing bad had happened so far, I just wasn't ready to go back into the car with all the other children. The girl eventually left and moved back to the forward car, leaving me alone with my thoughts for a while.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Ninja Turtles, the Polar Express or any associated characters. I make no money from this and I mean no harm. Please do not sue.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Raphael came into the kitchen with a frown on his face.

"What's up with you?" Mikey asked, shoving a spatula that was coated with cookie dough in his brother's face. Raph's eyes lit up at the treat. Usually Mikey hogged these things for himself.

"Just that stupid bell."

"The one Donnie always puts on the tree?" Mikey asked as he grabbed a beater from the mixer and sat across from Raph.

"Yeah. That."

Mikey just shrugged. He long ago stopped pretending to understand everything Don did. Though that usually referred to Donnie's projects rather than his interactions with his brothers. "It's special to him"

"Yeah, I know. I left it, but geez, the thing's been gummed up for years."

Mikey frowned. Part of him was just not quite sure that the bell was gummed up.

"What are you two talking about?" April asked as she set the timer on the stove for the last batch of cookies.

"Donno's got this bell that he insists on puttin' on the tree every year." Raphael informed their friend. "An' how come that thing survived our last two moves? Everythin' else was destroyed."

Mikey frowned at that one. The last move almost nothing had survived. In fact, he could not remember anyone going back to the old lair for anything. Even Master Splinter had not gone back to see if he could salvage anything. The whole place had been completely trashed. That was about a year and a half ago now.

"Did you guys salvage anything from the last lair?" April asked, thinking similar thoughts to Mikey's."No. We didn't."

* * *

When it got particularly loud in the main compartment I moved back to the car I came into originally. I didn't know how long this train ride was going to be, but it seemed to be taking quite a while. If Master Splinter found out where I was and what I had done, he was going to kill me. That thought alone drove me toward staying away from the humans as much as I could. 

Still, it was lonely back there without my brothers or the girl who had come to talk to me earlier. I missed Mikey and Leo and even Raph. Getting on this train had been a bad idea. I never should have left home.

There was a noise and the conductor guy came in escorting the girl.

"Where are you going?" I asked quietly as they passed me.

"The young lady here has lost her ticket." The conductor informed me. "So she cannot stay in the car."

"You're going to throw her off?" I asked, horrified. She was just a kid, and the tickets had just appeared. At least mine had. Why couldn't another ticket just appear for her?

"Actually, I had something else in mind."

"Like what?" The girl asked warily.

"I thought we could go up to the engine." The conductor told her with a slight smile. I wondered if maybe he was a nicer guy than I had initially thought. He had seemed so brash whenever I had come across him earlier.

"May I come?"

"Have you lost your ticket?" He asked me. That brassy and almost mean sounding tone had returned and I shied away from him slightly.

"No..." He gave me that look that Master Splinter gives me when he's trying to decide what punishment is appropriate for taking apart the toaster again and my eyes sank to the floor.

"Then you're allowed on this train!" The conductor said brightly. "And I don't see why you can't come along!" The change in demeanor was so swift that it caught me off guard. I had already been nodding at the fact that I wouldn't be allowed to come. Blinking, I looked up at the man.

"I can?"

"Of course! All you had to do was ask! Come along."

The three of us walked out the back of the car and I tied my blanket around my neck then again around my waist with my belt so it was more of a robe and wouldn't blow away in the wind outside. It was so very cold, and yet I didn't feel tired as was usual when my brothers and I caught a chill. The sensation was strange and I found that I enjoyed it.

We eventually came to the engine...

It. Was. Amazing! I never imagined that I might actually see the inside of a Kanawha!

"Wow!" I gasped in pure awe. I stayed back from the engineer and the man helping him by pure force of will. My first instinct was to run to the controls and take a look. Maybe even touch them, but I knew better. Also, these were humans and my training helped keep me back.

"Hey, the bulbs burnt out!" The skinny red-headed guy said. The short fat man was the actual engineer, this guy must have been some sort of assistant.

I was watching the controls from a distance, trying to determine which lever or switch did what. There was conversation going on around me, but I do not recall what it was. I suspect that even at the time I didn't know what was being said. My mental exercise of guessing what the various controls did had consumed me. That is a trait of mine that has – at times unfortunately if I truly admit it – remained with me. Had I been left to my own devices in peace and quiet, I could have been happily entertained by that Kanawha engine for hours, but that was not to be.

I felt a soft tapping on my shoulder and pulled myself out of my solve the puzzle state into pay attention to the world around me mode. The three adults had left. They had been replaced by a boy several years older than me. He had been the source of the tapping. From what I had seen in the other car, I was the youngest child on the train. He might have been the oldest. Dark, scraggly hair fell into his eyes and it seemed that the girl had her ticket back! I guess he had returned it to her. Though I had no idea where he might have found it.

The girl was pointing out things to the boy. Evidently the engineer had explained it to her. He excitedly pulled the whistle.

"This is great!" He said, and the girl nodded in agreement.

"Can I try?" I asked softly, though I was still to small to reach.

"Sure, kid." The boy told me before lifting me up high enough to reach the whistle. I panicked for a brief moment before realizing that he wasn't hurting me and was actually helping me. Pulling down, I heard the train's shrill whistle echo back from across the ice. With a giggle, I pulled it again and again, the bright, warning noise rang out across the arctic tundra around us. The boy returned me to the floor.

"What are you anyway?" He asked.

"I-"

"Stop the train! Stop the train!" That sounded like the conductor and before I could say anything the boy and girl were arguing about which was the brake. While I had to agree with the boy that the red handle did look like a brake, the girl had been here and the engineer himself had told her what was what. I was inclined to believe her. While they argued, I threw the golden handle.

The train went screeching to a halt, the three of us were thrown forward. Once we had sorted out which limbs belonged to whom we looked outside.

Caribou. They were everywhere. Surrounding the train in a larger herd than I had ever imagined I might see were caribou.

"Reindeer!" The girl said excitedly.

It was close enough so I didn't correct her. A reindeer is a domesticated caribou, and a herd of this size is very rare for reindeer, but not outside the realm of possibility for their wild counterparts.

We heard screaming, some of it might have been from the caribou, but there was more that I was unsure of. It didn't sound quite like the caribou calls. Either way, the herd parted along the tracks, allowing the train passage. When the engineer and his assistant returned, the boy, the girl and myself went out onto the front of the engine with the conductor. We steamed up a hill and as we neared the top something amazing was waiting for us.

"The Northern Lights!" The girl gasped.

This time she was right. Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights had burst into existence in the sky above us. I had never seen anything like it. New York can occasionally see the Lights off in the northern sky, but that is nothing like this. Living underground I had never seen it before anyway. The sky had exploded in a brilliant, dancing green. Along the top edge ran a magenta curtain that seemed to be leading the green by a fraction of a second. And from our vantage point, so far north, the lights looked like they were everywhere, not just confined to the northern sky. So high overhead and yet it looked like you could reach out and touch them. It seemed like if I just paid enough attention, I could hear the Lights sing.

I was still enthralled by the dancing lights in the sky when the conductor pulled me close to him. He lashed the boy, the girl and myself tightly to the rail on the front of the train. At first I had been terrified by the action, afraid that this was his preparing to strap me to one of those tables that Master Splinter had warned us about so many times, but I soon realized that he had a very good reason for doing this. The train was moving very fast.

"This is the longest, steepest, downhill grade in the world."

"But I thought railway code says no grade can be steeper than half of a percent!" I spluttered. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind heights, but this was very different. This time, I was not in control.

"This is the arctic, young man." The conductor reminded me. "Codes are different here."

I'm pretty sure that what he actually meant was that there were no codes here at all. People just built what they needed built. And with the environment, I suppose I can see why.

Pitching over the edge of the hill, the train really started to barrel down the track. I clung tightly to the girl, and she grabbed onto the boy. The three of us were held tightly to the bar between the conductor's arms. All of them started screaming as we raced down the hill, I simply hung on for dear life. Master Splinter had taught us not to shout or cry out when we were afraid as it could give away or location to people who might harm us.

Reaching the bottom of the hill I started to relax, but it was not safe yet. The train barreled around a bend. I only just managed to hold on, though the girl fell into me hard we all managed to stay on the front of the train. The train finally slowed to the more leisurely pace we had experienced for most of the trip and we all started to relax.

"See that, over there on the horizon?" The conductor said, gently touching my shoulder to get my attention, the two other kids were already looking at him. I looked in the direction that he had indicated. The lights on the surface were almost as dazzling as the ones in the sky.

"That is our destination: the North Pole." He continued.

The girl gasped in excitement and the boy smiled. I scooted a little closer to the group, my attention drawn to the sky once more. The North Pole's association with Christmas was still a little fuzzy to me. I would find out what the hubbub was all about soon enough though. In the meantime, the three of us were escorted back to the main car with all the other children, and I managed to worm my way into a seat between the boy and girl who had been up on the front of the train with me.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Ninja Turtles, the Polar Express or any associated characters. I make no money from this and I mean no harm. Please do not sue.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

The train raced over the ice, midnight was fast approaching and that seemed to be important. Why, I wasn't sure, but there was definitely tension in the air and midnight seemed to be some sort of focal point. There was a bit of a ride left and it was long past my bedtime. Additionally, the cold was catching up with me. I fell asleep between my two new friends. While I knew that Master Splinter was right about many humans, I felt that these were ones that I could trust. Even if I was nothing more than a curiosity to them, which I somehow doubted, I felt safe here.

I don't know how much time had passed, but I awoke to someone shouting.

"Look! Elves!" It was a little girl, possibly little older than I was, but I admit that my understanding of human age was limited. She was definitely younger than the boy and girl I had befriended. She giggled and I blinked awake.

"Good morning." It was the girl who had been up in the engine with me. She smiled at me and I returned the gesture. Though the shouting had woken me up, it was not the first time I had awoken to a similar noise. Mikey often woke me up with an excited shout. "Look." She directed my attention out the window. I gasped at what I saw.

The city was beautiful. Small but brilliant lights frosted the tops of red buildings with architecture that seemed impossible for the lowly brick. Snow glistened on the ground and a giant tree stood before the train. I recognized it as a fir tree, though from this distance the species was impossible to determine. Lights made the tree dazzle in a way I had never thought possible. The massive tree was larger than any I had ever seen, and the odds against something like this growing in a place as cold as the north pole were astronomical, but here it was. To the south, the green and magenta of the Aurora could still be seen, dancing across the sky. Looking toward the ground, I saw what I first thought were hundreds of children making their way to the main square where the tree stood. Further inspection showed that they were not children at all, but fully grown people almost as different from a human as I was! They were not green and they didn't wear a shell on their backs, but the very small men and women had pointy ears and nasally voices that no human vocal cord could possibly produce. Part of me wondered if this was just a beautiful dream that I would awaken from and find myself nestled between my brothers back in our sewer lair. Another part of me insisted that not even my sweetest dreams were this beautiful. This could not possibly be a dream...

This was magic.

We were quickly shuttled off the train by the conductor. His sharp voice ordering us into formation, almost like when Master Splinter starts our training sessions. I was the shortest child, and stood at the front of one line. The little girl whose shout had woken me up from my nap on the train stood next to me. The boy I had befriended stood in the back of my line, the girl in the back of the other. While this is where I had been told to stand, I did not like it here. I was more comfortable with my two new friends.

Glancing at the other children, I noticed that none of them were staring at me as part of me had suspected they would be. Instead they were all enthralled by what was going on around us. Here I was at the North Pole, and no one had properly told me the story of Santa Claus.

We marched forward and a giant airship flew overhead, carrying a giant bag.

"What is that?" I asked softly. I felt the conductor step up beside me.

"That, young man, is Santa's bag of presents. All good children receive a gift from Santa Claus.

I frowned. My brothers and I had never really heard of Santa Claus. We had certainly never received a gift from him. That meant that we were either all bad, and I couldn't believe that Leo would count as a bad boy, or we did not count as children.

A door opened and harnessed animals came out. I recognized them as reindeer. They looked so similar to their wild counterparts, the caribou we had seen on the tracks, yet there was something decidedly different about these ones. They were flying; something I was fairly certain was not a normal trait for the animals. On their harnesses seemed to be bells. I could hear the children around me raving about how beautiful the sound was. Yet, I heard nothing but the voices of the children and elves around me.

"Or perhaps I should say... all good children who believe."

I cocked my head slightly and looked up at the conductor. He winked at me. That statement changed a lot. How were my brothers and I to believe in something we had never heard of? I smiled and looked forward, giving the situation a few more moments of thought.

And I heard the bells.

My eyes widened and I watched as the elves wrestled the flying reindeer into position and attached the harnesses to the sleigh that stood in front of the tree. A sleigh that seemed to be the destination of the bag the airship carried. Behind the deer stood a very large man. He was dressed in red and wore a long coat that reminded me of Splinter's red winter robe. A red hat covered white hair, and a long mustache and beard hid much of the man's face while giving him a kind and wizened appearance. He smiled and waved. I found myself laughing and waving back.

Santa approached us and smiled at us, though we were no longer in the two straight lines that conductor had first made us stand in. The girl I had gotten to know on the train stood to my left and the boy was on her other side.

He spoke gently to each of us in turn, though one boy was scolded for being impatient. Santa passed over the boy I had met and turned to the girl. The boy seemed hurt that he had been skipped. He didn't say anything, but he looked down just enough that his scruffy, dark hair fell over his eyes.

"You have true spirit. Keep that." Santa gave the girl a short bow and she smiled brightly and her cheeks showed a slight blush. Santa then knelt next to me.

"And I don't think you ever told me what you would like for Christmas."

I stared for a moment, trying to figure out how I would have told something I never heard of what I wanted for a holiday I had never really known about.

"Well?" He asked gently.

I took a moment to think before whispering to him, feeling a little silly about my answer and not wanting the other children to hear.

"Oh... I see." Santa said and looked at me with a quiet smile that reminded me of my father when he was pleased. "I will see what I can do about that."

I grinned as he turned back to the boy I had befriended.

"And what about you, young man? What would you like for Christmas."

The other boy thought for a moment before whispering to Santa Claus. Santa nodded then stood.

"In that case, I present the First Gift of Christmas!" He reached into a pocket and handed the boy a pocket watch. The golden item spun lazily on it's chain. In what looked like disbelief, the boy reached out to the item and carefully clasped his hands around it. He looked at it and held it close to his chest for a moment before holding it out to look at it again. I peeked around his arm at the watch. The gold did not have the brilliant, polished look of a new item. This looked aged, parts of it tarnished, but the metalwork was exquisite. Careful detailing decorated the cover. When he opened it, small hands ticked softly along a beautiful white face painted with careful, black numbers accented with gold. The boy looked at the inside of the cover and gasped at the engraving there. Even the engraving was carefully and skillfully done.

"My grandpa gave this to my dad," The boy explained. "but it was lost in the fire."

"And now it has been returned to you." Santa said gently, patting the boy on the shoulder.

I thought I saw tears in the boy's blue eyes, but he seemed to be holding them back. "Thank you!" He whispered, clutching the watch to his chest again, unwilling to put it down even for a moment.

As we re-entered the train, the conductor punched our tickets again. He added four letters to the PE that already graced my ticket: R, S, O, N. I read it aloud.

"Person?"

"You may not be human, but you are still a person." The conductor smiled.

It took me a moment to take that in before I understood. I looked up at the conductor then jumped forward and hugged his leg.

"Heh, you're welcome, young man. Now get on the train." He patted my shoulder and gave me a gentle push toward the car.

The trip home was nowhere near as eventful as the trip north. Or perhaps it was and I just slept through it. For a long time, I listened to stories the boy told me about his dad and grandpa and the pocket watch he held. He let me hold it and look at it, provided I was careful.

I must have fallen asleep at some point because the conductor nudged me awake when we reached my home. Once again, the train stood in the tunnels just outside our lair. I hugged the two new friends that I had to leave behind too soon before letting the conductor guide me off the train. I waved until I couldn't see it anymore before ducking back into the lair. My father and brothers were all sleeping and I carefully returned to my own bed. Again I was shocked that no one had woken up during all my moving around.

I fell asleep to pleasant dreams of snow, aurora, caribou, Santa Claus and my two new friends that I would likely never see again.

For the second time in one night, I was awoken by an excited shout. This time it was Michelangelo.

"Leo! Raph! Donnie! C'mere! Look! Look!"

I jumped out of bed and rushed toward the sound of Mikey's voice.

A small, lit tree stood proud in what served as our living room. The little lights gave off the same soft glow that had been so beautiful the previous night.

"Look! We gots presents!" Mikey shouted. Pulling the items out from under the tree. There were coloring books, stuffed animals and new blankets for all of us. We each even had a new box of crayons, something we had never seen before. All of our old coloring supplies had long since been depleted of the good colors.

When all the animals, books and blankets had been opened Mikey crawled around under the tree.

"There's one more!" He called as he pulled out the tiny box. "It's for Donnie." He handed it to me and peered over my shoulder as I opened it. On top sat a short note.

_Donatello, This is very special. I hope that this serves as enough of a memento for you._

_-S.C._

As soon as I had read the note it vanished. Below where it had been sat one of the beautiful bells the reindeer had been wearing and I gasped softly. I carefully pulled it from the box and shook it. Again I heard the music from the night before. Master Splinter went to the kitchen to make breakfast for us.

"How come it doesn't make any sound?" Mikey asked. He sounded disappointed.

It was then that I told my brothers about my experience the night before. Soon, all three of them could hear the bell as well. I smiled and tied the little bell to the tree where we could all enjoy it.

But years passed and the music of the bell died for each of my brothers. Raphael was first, a couple of years later Leonardo could no longer hear it. I thought Mikey might always hear the bell, but one Christmas even he found that it had gone silent. Master Splinter never said whether or not he could hear the bell, and he's just difficult enough to read that I may never know.


	5. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Ninja Turtles, the Polar Express or any associated characters. I make no money from this and I mean no harm. Please do not sue.

* * *

**Epilogue**

Casey Jones stumbled into the lair, boxes were piled so high in his arms that it was a miracle he had made it without dropping everything. The miracle did not last however, and the boxes tumbled into the tree Raphael and I had worked so hard to decorate. Only three ornaments were dislodged in the jostling. A small glass angel shattered, a fabric wreath dropped to the floor and my bell fell and rolled to Casey's feet.

"Whoops!" Casey called out. The yelp was followed by a crash the likes of which only Casey Jones can manage.

A moment later my whole family was clustered in the room around the assaulted tree and battered boxes.

My brothers quickly rescued the boxes, while I returned the wreath to the tree. April quickly took care of the broken glass.

Casey handed my bell to me once I had returned the wreath to its home on the tree.

"I haven't heard a bell like that since I was a kid." Casey commented as he dropped the bell into my hand. I nearly dropped it to the floor again in shock.

"You musta hit your head in that fall, Case." Raph commented. "That bell ain't worked in years."

I shook the bell and stared at Casey.

"You nuts? It's a wonderful bell!" Casey insisted. This drew laughs from my brothers as they went to take the packages to their rightful places. I took my time returning the bell to the tree and giving them a moment to leave the room. When we were alone I turned to Casey. I frowned at him in thought, searching for a memory.

"The boy who got the pocket watch!" I said quietly, still stunned.

"That turtle kid was you?" Casey gasped in disbelief.


End file.
